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Monday, June 1, 2009

Wings 3-1 Again and POTG Radio Tonight

It's Monday once again, and time for PredsOnTheGlass Radio tonight at 8 Eastern/7 Central/5 Pacific (Why does Mountain always get left out?).

Tonight we have a special guest, Russ Cohen, a man of many talents and most recently author of 100 Ranger Greats. Russ also hosts two weekend hockey shows on XM Satellite Radio, writes for NHL publications, and is a founder of the Sportsology network. Jackson and I are both fans of Russ so this will be a real treat to cover a wide range of topics from his book, to the upcoming draft and all the current goings on in the world of hockey.Wings 3, Pittsburgh 1

This is not deja vu, we did indeed have another 3-1 game. While there were several similarities, but you have to realize that Pittsburgh played a much better game. They recovered from the disastrous night in the face-off circle on Saturday and were able to take advantage of Detroit on the the power play. Crosby upped his shot total and the Pens out shot the Wings for the second night in a row.

However, Detroit has gotten (made) all the breaks so far. Pittsburgh was ringing the pucks off the posts repeatedly and were unable to get a favorable bounce. Fill-in player Justin Abdelkater scored the back-breaking third goal at almost the exact same point as Saturday night.

The final icing on the cake was the scuffle between Malkin and Zetterberg which is the kind of old time hockey this series needed to send it back to Pittsburgh. I really thought we would go the whole series with the love tap by Sidney on Maltby being the nastiest thing that happened. Malkin has really stepped up this year and is working hard to make a difference.

I know that is near blasphemy for a true Predators fan to be so wildly excited about the Red Wings playing well, but I really appreciate their style of hockey, and how well they they are able to execute their game plan. It has never been a secret and 29 other teams know what they are going to do every game. Whenever Detroit comes to Nashville, I have no mixed allegiance but they are my favorite team for the Preds to play. You know when you win that you have beaten the best.

As gushy as I just got for the Wings, nothing compares to Pierre McGuire's apologetics for the Pens near the end of and after the game. After listening to Pierre's speech you would have thought the Pens are a lock to close out the Wings in six. Where does he come up with this stuff? Mick Kern at XM204 has a little more engaged view of where things stand. Chris at The Program also has several things figured out.

In Predator News...

Hockey'sFuture posted their Top Ten Organizational Ratings and the Preds came in at number three. We had reported last week that the bottom twenty did not include the Preds but third is higher than I imagined, with only St Louis and Montreal rated higher. Here's what they had to say about the Preds:

Strengths: The Predators have good high-end prospects at forward, defense, and in goal with Colin Wilson, Jon Blum, and Chet Pickard respectively. The organization possesses great depth along the wing with forwards such as Ryan Jones and Patric Hornqvist. The Predators are also deep in net with Mark Dekanich and Jeremy Smith beyond Pickard. Nashville drafts high-character prospects, who are self-driven. Weaknesses: An organization that used to be stocked with defensive prospects, that department looks comparatively bare as of late. While there is great forward depth along the wings, the system is thin at center. Also, Nashville drafts a great deal from Europe, and with that comes no guarantees of signability. Top 5 prospects: 1. Colin Wilson, C, 2. Chet Pickard, G, 3. Jon Blum, D, 4. Cody Franson, D, 5. Ryan Jones, RW. Key loss to graduation: Kevin Klein.

Chris Botta get's inside info on Victor Hedman's visit to the Islanders from an airport worker who happens to be a reader of Chris's column. Here's another Islanders first pick story from LightHouseHockey.Quotes from the NHL from Zetterberg on the fight at the end of the game...Q. That stuff at the end of the game, how much of that is frustration on their part or bad blood that's kind of going between the two teams?

HENRIK ZETTERBERG: Well, I think in the playoffs and finals like this, there is a lot of emotions, a lot of feelings. When you get scrums that's the way it is. It should be a lot of feelings, and nothing more than that.

Q. When did you last time have a five minutes for fighting, and could you tell us something about what happened there with Malkin?

HENRIK ZETTERBERG: Well, I think that is first one. And what happened, I think Talbot went over and slashed Ozzie a little bit, and they got a scrum. And Malkin came around the net, and off it went.

Q. Did Malkin surprise you? Are you guys anywhere close to playing at your best game in these first two games?

HENRIK ZETTERBERG: Well, I don't know if he surprised me. He came around the net and I saw him, so I don't think he surprised me there. Still I think we can play a lot better. I think if we minimize our mistakes, it will be ?? I think it will help us. Because when they're getting odd?man rushes, they're getting a lot of them. We get a lot of speed. And they spend time in our end. And it's tiring when they keep the puck low. So, you know, if we just take care of the puck and try to play a little bit more in there and it will be better for us.

Big argument in the office this morning because the Nashville Predators Calendar that I got as a giveaway from Pedigree says that June has 31 days. Disagreement resulted as to whether fourth of July was on Saturday or Sunday this year. No one flipped to July but it was correct.

Nothing earth shattering here, but Pro Hockey News actually has an article about PHX that has nothing to do with relocation.

Mirtle has an afternoon story about the Rangers raising season ticket prices 4 to 9%. He also has a link to a chart showing average ticket prices across the league. Nashville's average ticket price is ranked 18th in the league which is higher than many traditional markets including Detroit. Canadian media consistently bashes Nashville for having low ticket prices, but 18th of 30 is within a dollar of the league midpoint.

One of my My Other Gigs

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